On the antivaccine front, this year began with antivaccine hero Andrew Wakefield filing suit against investigative reporter Brian Deer, the BMJ, and Fiona Godlee (the editor of BMJ) for libel based on a series that Deer published in the BMJ outlining the evidence for Wakefield’s scientific fraud in his (in)famous 1998 Lancet case series.

Not surprisingly, the court slapped Wakefield down conclusively, dismissing his suit on jurisdictional grounds, leading to another conspiragasm among his supporters.

Ever since Wakefield’s suit was dismissed, people have been wondering: Will he appeal? He had 30 days to appeal, which meant that, as the month of August wound down, so did Wakefield’s time to appeal.

So, as the 30 day deadline to file for an appeal came and went, most of us paying attention to the case assumed that Wakefield had quietly folded.

Wrong.

If you look at the Texas Third Court of Appeals website for case 03-12-00576-CV, you’ll find that on August 31 a notice of appeal was filed in the court of appeals. It would appear that Wakefield is indeed going to appeal the original decision.

Tip: @Orac on Twitter

The details are not available yet so it’s unclear what grounds upon which he plans to appeal. But the first suit was a joke, this appeals would have even less merit. The assumption is that he is doing this to remain in the public eye, to keep playing the martyr, asking for money, and being a general pain in the ass for Deer and the BMJ. Or, there is some strange chance he STILL thinks he’s a credible person.